


Concern and Comfort

by hybryd0



Series: Whump! [1]
Category: Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: Gen, Multi, gen or open relationship take your pick, warning for mild depiction of death in nightmare form
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-05-31 22:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6490594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hybryd0/pseuds/hybryd0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chase is more than a little worried about Riley</p>
            </blockquote>





	Concern and Comfort

It wasn’t that Riley was never late; none of them were perfect. Hell, in any normal job they all would have been fired already. The problem came when Riley was late for his shift three days in a row (even Chase managed to not be late consecutive days) and looked worse each day.

Chase tried not to look too obvious as he watched for Riley to arrive. He knew the others were all worried about Riley, but he’d been distant ever since the incident with Game Face. Tyler had suggested they just needed to give their younger friend some time, but Chase had a feeling that wasn’t the right answer, not with Riley anyway.

By the time Riley did get to work Chase was neck deep in orders and didn’t have the time to approach him. He did observe him though, as much as he could without burning any burgers. Chase noticed the dark circles under Riley’s eyes and the paleness of his skin the first time his friend brought him an order. He didn’t need to be a genius to put two and two together and figure out that Riley was either not sleeping or not sleeping well. Neither was a very nice option.

It was actually Shelby that managed to catch Riley on one of his trips into the kitchen. “Riley, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Riley said. He’d been saying the same thing for three days. At first it was easy enough to accept, he’d just been unusually late. Three days on and he didn’t look fine anymore.

“Riley--.”

“I said I’m fine, okay?”

Riley snatched the order he’d apparently come to fetch and left the kitchen. Shelby looked upset and Chase couldn’t tell if it was because Riley had snapped at her or if it was that they both knew their friend was lying to them all. He shrugged when she glanced at him and she sighed and went back to work. There wasn’t really much they could do if Riley wouldn’t let them help.

xxxx

Chase was pretty sure that Heckyl (or Snide) had gotten to the point where he was just throwing monsters at them for entertainment. That had to be the only reason for the string of pretty worthless monsters he was throwing at them. Chase didn’t really think Heckyl was the type to throw whatever at them to see if anything stuck, if anything worked, but that seemed to be the case. Or their enemy was cutting out the weak parts of the operation and using them as the executioners.

The monster of the week seemed to be some kind of rodent, kangaroo, dog mutant thing that didn’t even seem to have any kind of special ability. An army of vivix was with it, perhaps as Heckyl’s attempt to appear like he wanted to win, but considering none of the generals were there spoke volumes about how much Heckyl didn’t actually seem to care if the monster won or not.

It all seemed like a pretty easy fight, nothing they couldn’t handle. He and Riley were working the monster over together and it looked like the fight would be wrapped up in no time. Then the monster reared back on it’s tail and Chase had a flash of watching a real kangaroo attack a man in a zoo. He cartwheeled away with a shout of warning, but Riley didn’t react fast enough; not nearly as fast as he normally would have.

Chase heard the air get violently pushed out of Riley’s lungs as the monster’s kick connected with the green ranger’s chest. Riley went tumbling away and stopped almost a yard away. He was still, face down on the ground and while he didn’t demorph from the hit, he also didn’t get up right away.

“Riley!” Chase shouted and went to go to his friend’s side when the monster jumped in front of him.

“I don’t think so, black ranger,” the monster taunted.

“Chase catch!”

Chase turned at Tyler’s call and caught the T-Rex smasher easily. Without any preamble, Chase combined his Para Chopper with the T-Rex smasher to make the T-Rex Chopper.

“Double blast!”

“Time to kick the bucket!” The monster said as it threw its arms up in a futile attempt defend itself. It exploded in a bright flash, but Chase barely stopped to pay it any attention as he rushed to where Riley was still laid out.

“Riley?” Chase called. He dropped to his knees and skidded the last few feet to stop right by the fallen green ranger.

“M’okay,” Riley mumbled as Chase turned him over. “Just got the breath knocked out of me.”

Chase wanted to point out how much slower Riley had reacted to the monster’s attack, something the green ranger normally would have been able to dodge. He bit his lip though and just helped his friend get up, slowly. He stepped back when their other friends approached, all of them eager to check on Riley; it wasn’t often that one of them took a hit that they couldn’t shake off at least for the duration of the fight.

“You should have Ms. Morgan look you over,” Tyler said, patting Riley’s shoulder.

“I’m fine,” Riley said. “It just winded me is all.”

He stolled away then and there wasn’t much else they could do but follow. Chase fully intended to corner him later, but for right then he let it go. Riley was logical enough not to blow something off if it could be a major injury.

xxxx

_There were bodies strewn for as far as the eye could see. Grotesque, broken, twisted bodies. Bits and pieces. Dead. All dead because of him._

_“Murderer.”_

_Riley spun. Ivan stood behind him, covered in blood with shrapnel sticking out of him. Bits of bat. Riley felt sick. “No.”_

_“You just had to win.”_

_Shelby. Riley turned. She was in the same shape as Ivan. Broken. Dead._

_“No, please.”_

_“You use me.”_

_Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. “Koda no, I’m sorry.”_

_“Sorry doesn’t bring us back to life.”_

_They were all there, closing in on him. Dead eyes, mangled bodies. All his fault._

_“Murderer,” came from Chase. The tears fell._

_“No no no. I’m sorry, please.”_

_“Murderer,” they chanted in unison._

xxxx

Chase jolted awake at the very uncomfortable feeling of an elbow digging into his rib hard enough to hurt. It took him a second to remember where he was and then he looked down at the source of the elbow in his ribs and frowned. Riley was twitching in his sleep and his face looked troubled, his lips turned down in a frown.

“Riley!”

Riley’s body twitched in his arms almost as if he was being hit. “No, I’m so sorry.”

“Riley okay?”

Chase looked down to see that both Koda and Ivan were awake, Koda a little more so than the knight. A quick check showed that Tyler and Shelby were awake too, both of them watching Riley with knowing and worried eyes.

Chase sighed and brushed his fingers over Riley’s cheek. “It’s okay, love, come back to us now.”

Riley jerked awake with a harsh sob. He was shaking violently and gasping like he couldn’t breathe. Chase tried to sooth him with gentle touches while they all tried to talk to him, but he couldn’t seem to comprehend what they were saying. He was stuck in whatever nightmare that had gripped him tight.

“Sorry, so sorry,” he choked out.

“Shhh, you’re okay, love, just breathe.”

“C-Can’t,” Riley stuttered and started to panic when he really couldn’t draw in enough air. “Chase, I can’t-.”

“Help me move him around,” Chase said to Tyler.

Riley didn’t fight as they gently maneuvered him around until his back was against Chase’s chest. Chase wrapped one arm around his tummy and held him close while he placed his other hand over Riley’s heart.

“Can you feel me breathing?” Chase asked, his voice soft in Riley’s ear. Riley nodded, still unable to catch his breath. “Good, okay. I need you to breathe with me, yeah? Just breathe.”

It took some effort, but eventually Riley managed to match his breathing to Chase’s and in turn he started to calm down. He felt it the moment Riley was fully aware of what was going on. His younger friend’s whole body went tense and a flush crept up the back of his neck. He wasn’t really surprised that Riley was embarrassed, the green ranger hated it when they pointed out that he was the baby of the group.

“There we are,” Chase said softly and pressed his lips to Riley’s temple briefly. 

Riley looked down toward his feet suddenly and Chase followed his gaze to see that Tyler had Riley’s feet in his lap and was gently stroking his ankle. Chase was grateful for Tyler’s presence and that his friend was trying to help sooth Riley the best they could.

“Is this why you’ve been so tired?” Tyler asked, his voice low and coaxing. “Have you been having nightmares?”

Riley ducked his head rather than answer. 

“I have nightmares about fighting Fury,” Tyler said into the growing silence. Riley looked up at him in surprise. “Sometimes it’s him beating me in a fight and taking my energem. Sometimes worse.”

“After we fought Spellbinder I had a nightmare that Shelby didn’t break me out of the spell,” Chase admitted softly. He couldn’t help the shiver that went through him at the image that flashed in his mind of him standing over his friends’ broken bodies. He smiled as he felt Riley place his hand over the one Chase had on his chest. “I didn’t sleep for three days after that.”

“I think with the things we see and have to deal with it just comes with the territory,” Tyler went on.

“How do you deal with it?” Riley asked, wincing at the soreness in his throat.

“I talk to someone about it,” Tyler said and Chase nodded along. “It doesn’t make them go away, but it helps to deal with them.”

“It’s not a weakness to ask for help,” Chase added.

Tyler squeezed Riley’s ankle gently. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Riley went tense again and Chase felt his heart rate start to pick up. His breathing started to go uneven again and Chase worried for a second that they were headed into another panic attack. Thankfully Riley just swallowed hard and shook his head.

“Okay, that’s okay,” Chase said. “Any of us will be here when you’re ready.”

Shelby and the other two boys returned then and they each brought something back with them. Koda had a tray of drinks, which he placed down on the table and immediately offered one of the cups to Riley. Riley took it gratefully and took several deep gulps, sighing at the relief it brought to his sore throat.

Before he could put the cup down, Ivan offered Riley the bottle of painkillers he had returned with. Riley shook two out onto his palm and swallowed them down with another gulp of water. Chase didn’t blame him, because he always felt like an army of vivix had stomped all over him when he had nightmares.

Shelby didn’t give Riley the washcloth she’d returned with. Instead she kneeled down on the floor beside the couch and brushed the warm cloth across his forehead and down his cheek. It was such a tender touch that Chase felt Riley start to relax again.

“Do you want to try and sleep again?” Chase asked as Shelby settled back in beside Tyler.

“No,” Riley said a little too quickly earning him sympathetic looks from the others. “You guys don’t have to…” He trailed off when the looks turned incredulous.

Without another word Tyler turned the tv back on and they all seemed to settle back down as if everything was normal, as if Riley wasn’t still cradled in Chase’s arms. Chase turned his hand over and laced his fingers with Riley’s and gave them a gentle squeeze. For some reason that simple gesture was enough for Riley to relax back into Chase.

It wasn’t long before he was asleep again. The nightmare didn’t return.


End file.
